It is day 7 in the 31 Day challenge and today’s task is to write a ‘link post‘ – a post that links up to at least one other blog.
Someone asked me recently to name a few ways that I built a readership on my first blog. One of the answers that I gave to their question was that I was generous with linking to other blogs.
I wasn’t alone – back then (we’re talking 7 years ago) blogging revolved around the link. One blogger would write something and it wasn’t unusual to have hundreds of others link to it with posts that built upon the ideas of the first post in some way.
The result was that
- ideas spread across the blogosphere quickly
- relationships between bloggers grew with each link
- and as a result everyone’s blog grew
While this still happens today on blogs to some degree much of the sharing of links has moved to other mediums (like Twitter and Social Bookmarking sites) and it’s commonplace for a blogger to rarely link to other blogs on their blog because they’re either doing it in other places or they feel they’d be building up a competitor.
Your Task Today is to Link Link Link
Today your task is to reclaim some of this practice of linking to other blogs and to write a post that highlights what another blogger (or bloggers) in your niche has written.
Reasons to link out on your blog
- Giving something of value to your readers – while your readers come to your blog to read what you have to say – I find that in almost every case that I link up to quality content that readers are appreciative.
- Builds Your Credibility – regularly highlighting what others are writing in your niche shows your readers that you’re abreast of developments in your field and that you’re ‘connected’ to the network.
- Builds Relationships with Other Bloggers – there’s nothing like sending another blogger traffic to make an impression and build connections. Not only that, when you link to others in a constructive way that actually builds upon their ideas and adds value to a conversation that they’ve started it can often lead to ongoing interactions.
- SEO – some SEOs argue that linking out to other relevant content in your niche with relevant keywords as anchor text can have an impact upon how the search engines see your own site. You don’t want to go over the top and link out too much – but a few links to quality content on your topic may well show a search engine that you’re worthy of authority. It’s certainly not the main factor in Google’s algorithm but many argue that it helps.
The key with this task is to link to something of value – something that your readers will find relevant and helpful to them.
Of course building this practice into your blogging means you need to be aware of what’s happening in your particular part of the web. To do this you’ll probably want to:
- Subscribe to other blogs and sites in your niche
- Watch social bookmarking sites that cover topics in your industry
- Subscribe to ‘news alerts’ with tools like Googles News alerts etc
6 Types of Link Posts to Consider
There are many ways to link up to another blog in a way that is valuable. Let me give you a few suggestions on ways to do it that go beyond just giving your readers and link and saying ‘go read it’:
1. Build Upon the Points of Others – take an article that someone has written and then add some points and perspectives that they might have missed or not considered. A classic way to do this is to take a list post that someone has written and add an extra couple of points. For example if someone writes a post ‘21 Ways to Write Posts that Are Guaranteed to Grow Your Blog‘ – write a post ‘3 more Ways to Write Posts that Are Guaranteed to Grow Your Blog’ that links to the first post – that might pick up a few of the points and then extends the article by suggesting 3 of your own points.
2. Take the Opposite Point of View – another way to bounce off someone else’s post is to explore the opposing point of view to their post. You might do this as ‘devils advocate’ or because you actually believe the opposite of what they’re saying is true. Keep in mind that this might not build a relationship with the other blogger if you do it in a way that offends!
3. Build a Resource on a Topic – pick a topic in your niche and then spend some time what other bloggers in your niche have written on that topic previously. What you’ll probably end up with is a list of posts from other blogs all on the one topic. You could present them simply as a list of links or could state the main points from each post or even use quotes from each one. These types of posts often do well in social media sites – particularly if you gather a large list of helpful resources on the topic.
Example: DIY Lighting Hacks for Digital Photographers – this post was simply a collection of tutorials that others had written on a similar topic. I included a picture and short description of each one as a list. The post was passed around the web in many social media sites. Yesterdays post here at Problogger 27 Must Read Tips and Tutorials for Bloggers would be another example of this.
4. Speed Linking – I used to do this regularly on ProBlogger (example) (note: I’ve moved most of it over to my Twitter account). The idea was that on a given day I’d link to 5-6 posts that I came across in my daily reading for that day. The links generally didn’t relate strongly to one another but covered a broad range of topics that I felt were relevant to my readers.
Example: a while ago I wrote a post 25 Great Photography Tutorials and Links from Around the Web. It was simply a collection of a few great tutorials that others had written from the month or two before when I published the post (plus a few of my own links from our archives). This post made it to the front page of Digg and other social media sites simply because it contained some great tutorials.
5. One Question Interviews – this one takes a little co-ordination and advanced planning but is when you shoot a question out to another blogger (or bloggers) to get their perspective on a topic relevant to your readers. I find these most effective when you email the same question to 5 or so other bloggers in your niche and then compile all the answers into one post side by side so your readers can see different perspectives.
6. Suggest Further Reading and Give Examples – another common way to linking to others as well as creating value for readers and extra depth in your posts is to to add links to what others are saying on your topic in the day to day writing of posts. Your post might not be a ‘link post’ in and of itself as you cover a topic comprehensively from your own perspective – but this doesn’t stop you giving your readers some suggested reading at the end of your post on the topic at hand.
There are 6 suggestions for you but there are so many others that you could try. For more ideas check out a post I wrote called How to Add to Blogging Conversations… and Eliminate the Echo Chamber.
What others have said on this topic:
Your Task – Write a Link Post
OK – we’ve talked about why and how to do it – now it is time to go and write a link post. Once you’ve done it come back and tell us how you did it, what you learned, where the post is and what impact it has with readers and other bloggers.
PS: if you can find something relevant on another 31 Days participants blog it’d be great to share some link love to other bloggers in the community. I’ve seen quite a few 31DBBB participants starting to team up and support one another – why not reach out to someone today and see where it leads! There are loads of people over at the forum talking about this now: Day 7 – Write a Link Post
Want More?This task is a sample of one of the tasks in the 31 Days to Build a Better Blog Workbook – a downloadable resource designed to reinvigorate and revitalize blogs. Join over 14,000 other bloggers and Get your Copy Today. |
Linking to other relevant web pages certainly is a good way of showing your readers some good information that might be helpful for them and it also shows that you care to give them the right resources even if they have to leave your site for that.
Even for SEO, if we link out to other relevant pages that shows search engines that we are a ‘good’ ‘legit’ information library and not some self promoting blackhat site.
I already do this all the time. In fact, it could be argued it’s mostly what I do :)
Examples include:
Conspiracy Theories and Fantasy Games
Virii, Spreader of Memes
Spring Cleaning: Creating Newsletters
It was a nice article on linking … but do we need to ask the blogger before we add some more points to his theories of work …..
Sudeep – no you don’t need permission to write about and add to the ideas of another person. I liken it to when you write an academic paper/essay – you cite sources but building on ideas of others is how we learn and progress and it’s a core part of what blogging is about.
My list post doubled as a link post. It pointed my readership to the top 5 gen Y blog posts that I have read this year! Check it out!
I will post another link post, I’m thinking something around maintaining employment in the current economy
Great reminder- I find it so flattering when others link to me, but then flake out myself. I’ll be linking this week for sure. Thanks!
Like Viratha, most of my posts include links to other blogs. In fact, that was one thing that I did in the early days of my blog in 2007 to build up a lot of attention.
My list post from Day 2 was actually a link post as I linked to 20 Blogs I Wish Were Around When I Started Teaching.
It’s been interesting to see the traffic build on that one post. I emailed the authors of those blogs yesterday and asked them to link to me. Already a few have and I’m starting to build deeper relationships with those bloggers through email and Twitter as well as comments. Great stuff!
Guess it’s about time to go write me another list post…
I’ve been a regular visitor to terrific author with a creative writing blog. He’s launched a new blog on simple blog tips. Yesterday, I wrote about his new blog and urged my readers to check out him out, stressing it will help them a lot in their blogging.
Of course, I’ve not been peeking over Darren’s shoulders. This is just a happy coincidence. “,)
This is my post on Terry Heath’s newly launched blog called Bloggity: http://salabasngmandaluyong.blogspot.com/2009/04/kick-ass-blog-tip-demystify-blogging.html
Well, back to reading the rest of list of blogging resources you’ve posted yesterday then.
If you do mostly use links like that, I’ve noticed I need to sift things ruthlessly. I do this by having Google Reader and a FF extension called “Read this Later” which work together.
I mark something for later reading in Reader using the extension. I read things in the extension by date added so there’s time between my first “hmmm, that was interesting” and the next “now, can I really use this?” moments.
I make sure that Read this Later has at least 100 things in it to read so there really is a few days between the two – I read fast and can scan up to 250 items in a day >.< It’s so hard not to take it to zero!
I guess I’m gonna be doing blog linking today.
For the first time in seven days, I’m ahead of the game!
I do a weekly link post called Mike’s Life POW – Posts of the week. I simply pick the posts that arrive in my RSS feeder that I like the best each week and put them on the site on a Friday – linking to each post and with a brief synopsis.
Here’s this week’s:
http://www.mikeslife.org/content/mikes-life-posts-week-10th-april-2009
If any readers would like me to subscribe to their feeds, come and comment on my site and I’ll add you. You may be on POW in the future!
I just want to add that linking to a blog post that is relevant to your blog post does have some impact on your search engine ranking for the blog post.
What I will do is search on google for the same related post and link to the top 3 search result.
I have done my experiment and that blog keyword got a top 10 ranking from google without doing any other linking from !!
Anyway, this only work for longtail keyword… or the less satuarated keywords… :)
Hi Darren,
Great info, yet again. I’m pretty new to blogging… well, I’ve blogged in the past, but didn’t get the relevance of it until this year. I’ve relied on sites like yours to help me learn the ins and outs, so thanks.
Happy Easter!
Erin
Very well said Darren. Earlier this month I had written a post on April Fools day Pranks which links to popular resources available on the net and it is also a LIST post which you had covered earlier!
http://techpp.com/2009/03/30/ultimate-resources-april-fools-day-pranks/
It would be great if you or someone else here take time to evaluate it.
I done that in the past where I linked to a post of blogger ,I am going to do in future as well if I found a good post ,I will definitely link to it.This also develops good relationship among the bloggers in my opinion.
I am doing 31DBBB with a buddy and went to her expat support blog to link a post — and what do I find but her latest post, about expat use of Twitter, mentions me! Surprise!
Here’s my microblog link post on Twitter:
Why is Twitter an Expat’s Best Friend? Belgian in Canada @emmanuelle_a explains http://tiny.cc/igM7N
I will run this link throughout the day with different intros about the contents of her post, and who Emmanuelle Archer is, and what her Winning Away blog is about
I did this yesterday!
The things I find relevant often cover a wide range of topics, so
I call those posts: Around the web (and name an edition of some sort).
I have a folder in my bookmarks bar that I add to when I come across something interesting.
I have also done posts in the past in response to blog posts I enjoyed reading, or posts where I had a different perspective than the author.
I will have to think about what topic I can be a resource about. That’s a tough one for me!
I think this is a great way to build relationships with other bloggers, and it is definitly something I don’t do enough.
I will do my homework, and write a link post, and will try to do it more and more.
And Joel, it is really interesting to see that that post is now the #5 in your top posts! Just great, that’s really stimulating to do that also. Maybe I will steal your idea, only with a different subject ;)
Thanks all!
Stefan/DSK
TheDutchSchoolKid.blogspot.com
Great post Darren, as always.
I’m already doing a weekly “link post” every friday on my blog, which summarizes news and relevant posts on other blogs in my niche (the education for patent attorney trainees in Germany). See some examples here (all in German, sorry):
http://www.iloveip.de/2009/04/lesestoff-kw-1509/
http://www.iloveip.de/2009/04/lesestoff-kw-1409/
Good point! Love #4 Darren, i thought that was the useful rather than others.
Thanks for the tips.
Funny thing about this is I was just getting ready to work up a post which did something like this. If all goes well, I’ll be posting it later today. Would love to get some of the team-up action!
The second benefit of this series is some of the great information contained in the replies as well! Thanks everyone for taking the time to do it.
i’m doing these out of order… woops…
but it turns out i did a linking post on friday… i asked my readers a question, and this is thier response:
http://the-coveted.com/blog/2009/04/10/this-old-rag-our-lurking-treasures/
I have been trying this for some time and some links do show up in the search results, but not all of them, why?
Gosh, you know what? That really felt GOOD to share the link love!
We don’t celebrate Easter, but I know a lot of people do, so rather than write about ways to celebrate myself, I figured I’d link to people who did!
http://littlegreenblog.com/family-and-food/green-parenting/celebrating-easter-with-children/
I was able to link to two people who have contacted me through the 31 day challenge, which was like my way of saying thank you to them publicly :)
Great post again Darren – thank you!
I just did this for the first time in my last post.
lawofattraction
I will visit a few blogs today and see if I can build on this idea. Thanks for this Darren.
Oops, my link above didn’t work. I tried to create anchor text but no dice. lol! Ok so here’s the link. http://lotusessence.com/2009/04/09/law-of-attraction-and-the-economy/
This is one great idea. For example in my post about the Twitter killer apps pt1 & 2, I linked to several posts that provided some great insights related to the apps mentioned. I don’t mind linking as long as the contents are interrelated and providing useful info.
I would welcome bloggers who’s into Social Media/Blogging topics to keep in touch via Twitter (@wchingya), perhaps we could work something out in our future posts. Quality content is always welcome.
Already done it! Posted More Business Practices that Make You Look Bad http://wahmbizbuilder.com/business/general/more-bad_business-practices/
:-)
Another Great Post Darren! I will have to try this out on my new blog.
I did one a few days ago on both blogs, but I’ll do another one today :)
what a coincidence! i just posted an entry at my blog as a further discussion of a topic started at my friends blog and i link back to the original post.
Then when i visited Problogger, todays task is to link post! so job done i guess.
Here’s an example of what i did earlier today
Are You Having an Affair?
http://www.tipsgoda.com/2009/04/are-you-having-affair.html
I use suggestions 1 and 6 frequently. Today’s blog post – http://www.inventingelephants.com/artagainstisolation.html – which I actually published right before I came over here – incorporates a little bit of both. I laughed when I saw the challenge.
I really like the idea of #5, which hadn’t occurred to me before. I’ve not done much reaching out beyond commenting and think that would make a great post. Thanks for the inspiration.
Well, I can’t stop thinking that these synchronicities have a deeper meaning :-) I already noted here that the first 3 tasks of this challenge were already done on my blog, before you posted them.
This time I’ve done exactly the same, I mean I wrote a list post, but in a manner you forgot / didn’t want to list: give your readers links to read while you’re on a trip or holiday. I’m on a trip to Japan like right now and before leaving I informed my readers about my (short) absence and give them a bunch of links from my niche, which is personal development. Hre’s the link of my list post:
The Trip To Japan, What To Read And More
Greeting from Tokyo :-)
I’ve had a ton of success linking to other personal finance blogs. Even the bigger blogs still commonly track who is linking to them.
It’s an awesome way to put you on the radar of the bigger blogs and to gain links and comments from other smaller bloggers!
I did a link post here http://dominiquegoh.com/2009/04/10/weekend-linky-attitude-of-gratitude/ as part of a blog award which I received from a friend of mind .
Darren,
This is a great post and there seems to be a terror of linking out because it can drain link juice. A lot of people say to avoid this and to only link to your own internal pages. But posts are about learning. Also if you are someone that surfs a lot it is a good use of your time to gather the urls to use in posts.
Lesson #7 was like a lightbulb. It immediately brought forth several ideas I intend to implement over the near term. Can’t quite keep up with actual assignments on my blog, but I am absorbing them!
Thats a nice way to pen it Darren and I really loved today’s article. As you have emphasized more on link building and sharing on links, I have observed that the reciprocation does not happen as we tend it to be.
A great concept, and of course Darren showed us a great example yesterday. It really is a win-win-win; the blog owner gets a content filled post, the linked blogs get incoming links and potential new readers, and the readers get exposed to ideas and concepts the might not have otherwise.
One place I think that people don’t do this enough is with product reviews. When I’m reading a review of the latest gadget, I almost always want a second opinion (no matter how credible the source), and I don’t think I’ve ever seen a blogger link to other reviews of the product.
Great way to round out the first week.
Barry
so I wrote a post about ” Ekhman ” and put a link to the source at the last of my post here :
http://atyafmsr.blogspot.com/2009/02/blog-post_4658.html
I actually did this yesterday on two posts currently in the Que. They are scheduled to go up next week.
Another great article.
This is an excellent way to get more exposure for your own blog. Great tips Darren. I’ve already done this and the feedback I got was amazing.
For example, the blog I wrote about offered to design the logo for my blogs new design, they added me to their blogroll and even sent me a “goody bag” as thank you. And all this from one of the 2010 Fifa World Cup main sponsors!
Heres the post I wrote
http://www.safootballfans.co.za/blogs/697-fnb-out-shines-the-rest-when-it-comes-to-promoting-our-2010-world-cup.html
Great idea Darren,
Link post are great way to spread the word about your blogs existence and if you can produce really great link post then it works as a link bait as well.
here is my link post hope you guys will like it
18 Blog SEO Tips By 4 SEO Experts
Hi everybody!
I would like to know if there is anybody here from Belgium or The Netherlands. I’m blogging in dutch, and I am looking for people who do the exercises here to share some experiences with dutch readers.
To Darren: I’m new in blogging, so this is going very fast for me. Most of the things you talk about are new to me. I’ll just have to make is a 60 day’s challenge ;-)
Thanks!
Some of my most royal readers started out from linking to them back when I started blogging. Also, nothing makes you feel greater as a bloggers when your ideas are linked my others.
Today’s post: 5 More Ways to “Save It”
http://newlifeasnewwife.blogspot.com/2009/04/5-more-way-to-save-it.html
Alison
http://www.newlifeasnewwife.blogspot.com
http://www.ahotpinkpetticoat.blogspot.com
I was just waiting for day 7 to post my link post. Describing what I did with the assignments per day and what I learned.
http://www.benlicher.nl/12-04-2009/de-eerste-7-van-31-dbbb/Ben-Licher-RaVisie.
Looks like I miss a lot of info this past few days.. anyways, thanks again Darren for yet another useful tips. I guess I have to start doing now.
I did a simple blog as a follow up to the one before it. I posted a pic and then linked to the blog where I got it. So, got to give credit for the picture and link up.
my blog stats have increased dramatically this week.. This morning I’ve already had 212 hits. which is a record for Sunday morning for me. Apparently the heathens are at home reading my tidbits! I’ve only been blogging since Feb. of this year, so this is perfect timing for me to be working on all aspects of the blog.
I usually do this on Sundays because there are a lot less readers online to read in dept articles. And those who are online are usually just in a reading mood. So they will browse around to look for information to read. Give them some links to read and by doing so, give link love to other excellent writers.
I ended up combining the link love post and the list post and came up with this… http://www.courtneyloveswhat.blogspot.com